Some studies suggest that the “ban the box” approach does more harm than good since it doesn’t allow applicants with clean records to let employers know about that. But if you really want to promote equality on job applications, then there’s another box that we should be banning: The one about education.

College is sold as a source of social mobility because getting an education improves your chance of getting a job. But there’s another way of looking at things: College isn’t so much a source of mobility as the lack of college is a barrier to moving up, a barrier that disproportionately affects the poor.

College is expensive. Four years of college, even in-state at a public university, can easily cost $100,000 — and many students take five or six years to graduate, not four. So far, most efforts to remedy this have focused on making college cheaper or giving students more financial aid. But those aren’t enough.